It was many thanks to Karin that my home and beloved pets had been safe, while I was locked up at Carswell. Now, thanks again to Karin, I could carry on my legal battle.
Alas, my beloved friend, JB Fields was suffering a mysterious illness that would prove to be lymphoma cancer. Shortly after my release from M.C.C, he started experiencing bouts of extreme exhaustion. Many months would go by before doctors discovered that his body had stopped producing blood platelets of any type.
JB Fields died in April, 2008—two days after the Court granted our demand for the hearing he fought so passionately for. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, a worthy resting place for a proud Navy man, who trawled the ocean floor on naval submarines, a man who dedicated his life to protecting the rights of Americans under the Constitution.
Without the devotion of JB Fields, and his efforts to expose my travesty at Carswell, my legal resurrection would have been unthinkable. JB’s commitment to protecting the freedoms of ordinary Americans is one military tradition that the United States cannot afford to lose.
Sadly, though he never lived to see my vindication or the dismissal of the charges, But JB understood what was coming. Thanks to the planning skills of Shaughnessy and Mattingly, everything was in place when we launched our counter-attack on the Justice Department.
Now the battle resumed in earnest. Only a whole new dynamic was in play.
Thanks to blog journalist Michael Collins, the “New Media” on the internet tracked my case intensely. Front page coverage in “Scoop,” American Politics Journal, Op-Ed News and Intelligence Daily, guaranteed the Justice Department could no longer foist its defamation of my competence on unquestioning Americans.
Shaughnessy was like a new Sheriff in town, a congenial fellow with a South County Rhode Island drawl, and the confidence and ease of a life-time practicing law at extremely high altitudes. He swore that he had never heard of any case during his career, in which a defendant had been declared “incompetent” over the objections of her own attorney.
Shaughnessy took the fight straight to the Prosecutor. If Judge Preska wanted proof of my story, Shaughnessy promised that we would have no difficulty delivering it.
The Court hemmed and hawed for months. Clearly they wanted to avoid a positive finding that would force a trial before the presidential election. They wanted to keep McCain and the Republicans safe through November.
No matter! The stage was set. My supporters had an under-dog mentality for this fight.
The way I saw it, they were big, but we were small. They were bulky, trapped by their deceptions. We were nimble, protected by our honesty.
And woe to the wicked!
Like Assets, we peace activists never surrender!
CHAPTER 32:
VINDICATION
Veritas vos Liberabit.
Trust in truth, for truth will set you free.— Or maybe not.
On a lovely day in June 2008, the Court could delay no longer. Judge Preska was forced to grant our demand for a hearing to challenge the bogus finding of incompetence.
This would be my first and only evidentiary hearing in the four years since my arrest. Ostensibly it would determine my “fitness” to stand trial— almost two years after my release from prison.
My Defense would be allowed to present just two witnesses, who could authenticate key parts of my story during one morning of testimony. At trial, there would be a dozen witnesses. But for this pre-trial hearing, the Court forced us to strip it down. The Prosecutor fought to block these participatory witnesses as well.
For all those constraints, Shaughnessy and I believed that we chose wisely.
Our first witness, Kelly O’Meara spent 17 years on Capitol Hill, rising to become Chief of Staff for Rep. Andrew Forbes of Long Island, New York. She played a lead role in the congressional investigation of the mysterious crash of TWA 800 over Long Island Sound. It was O’Meara who cranked up the heat until the Pentagon finally admitted that three submarines, performing a training exercise off the coast of Long Island that night, might have fired upon the airplane accidentally.606
After Capitol Hill, O’Meara turned to investigative journalism, and published a book on psychiatry, “Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Invents Mental Illness and Pushes Pills that Kill.” Her book examines the correlation between the use of anti-depressants, like Prozac, and shooting rampages by teenagers and adults.607
Finally, O’Meara had known my intelligence handler, Paul Hoven, for more than 20 years. Like me, she was introduced to Hoven by Pat Wait, chief of staff for Rep. Helen Bentley, (GOP- Maryland). She was also a regular at the Hunan for several years.608
O’MEARA: “I met Paul when I was investigating the death of Irana San Salvador, who was a U.S. embassy guard in San Salvador. Anyway he was killed, and I was investigating. I was telling this friend of mine, this chief of staff about it, and she said, oh, you need to meet Paul Hoven. He can probably help you with that. So I met Paul.”
“He’s a likeable fellow. We became friends. Paul’s the one that first took me to the Hunan, or told me I should come over to the Hunan on Thursday nights, because it is a group of Capitol Hill staffers. Some Pentagon people showed up every now and then. Some lobbyists. Basically it was just you know, after work, have a drink and talk shop.”
Shaughnessy was determined to prove that Hoven had longstanding relationships within the intelligence community, whether he chose to acknowledge formal ties to the Defense Intelligence Agency or not. He had an iron grip on the shadow nature of intelligence work. And so, very astutely, Shaughnessy guided O’Meara to describe the quirky habits of the intelligence community. As conversation, O’Meara’s insights would have been fascinating. In this context, it was frightening.
SHAUGHNESSY: “Did you learn, as the years went along, what sorts of things he did for a living?”
O’MEARA: “I didn’t know what Paul did as far as a living. I never knew Paul to have a job like everybody else. I mean, I never saw him get up and go to work, nine to five, at least when I knew him. I know beforehand, apparently, he was involved in military things on the Hill. But when I knew him, I didn’t know him to have a job.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Now, did there come a time when you met a fellow named Joe Harvey?”
O’MEARA: “Yes.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “How did you meet him, and what did your relationship become with Harvey?”
O’MEARA: “I was the lead investigator for TWA 800, the crash off of Long Island [in July, 1996] for Congressman Forbes. Anyway, Paul Hoven knew I was investigating that crash. And he said, “Oh, you need to talk to Joe Harvey.” So he introduced me to Joe Harvey because Joe was a former Navy SEAL. That was what I was told. I met Joe. He’s a very nice guy, and we had about a four-year friendship, you know.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Was there a particular term that Mr. Hoven used with respect to your relationship with Joe Harvey?”
O’MEARA: “Well, that came at the end of the relationship. During the whole time I knew Joe, even when I left the Hill and became an investigative reporter [at the Washington Times], Paul never said anything to me. It was after I was working on a story on the Oklahoma City bombing. And I remember Joe gave me some information, and I wasn’t clear on it, so I e-mailed him and asked him to clarify something.”
O’MEARA: “Joe Harvey wrote back, and said, “I don’t ever want to talk to you again.”
THE COURT: “Never?”
O’MEARA: “I never want to talk to you again.” I didn’t know why. I was kind of shocked because I always thought we were just really good friends. And I didn’t understand what had happened.”
“So anyway, when I saw Paul, I told him, and I showed Paul the e-mail. And Paul looked at me, and he goes, “Well, he’s not your handler anymore, Kelly.” Which kind of upset me, because Paul was the one that introduced me to Joe. And I had no idea that I had a handler.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “What did you take the term “handler” to be?”
O’MEARA: “We
ll, what do you take it to be?”
SHAUGHNESSY: “You have to say.”
O’MEARA: “OK. Somebody who kept an eye on me, passed information that I might have given to him, you know.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “To whom?”
O’MEARA: “Intelligence. That’s what I thought. I could be wrong, but that’s what I thought.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “With respect to Mr. Hoven, did you understand in any way that he was involved in intelligence work?”
O’MEARA: “This is just an opinion, OK.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Yes. Did you believe Mr. Hoven to be a member, or involved with intelligence?”
O’MEARA: “Yes.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Why?”
O’MEARA: “Because I always thought from the time I met Paul, that Paul was an information passer. For people who don’t live in Washington, or aren’t involved in investigations and stuff, maybe you don’t understand that. But Paul always had interesting information. He was always asking you about what you knew. I know that I told him something once on TWA 800 that actually ended up in a newspaper the very next day.”
“I always just felt Paul passed information. Add that with all of the people he introduced me to, the fact that he never had a job that I knew of, I thought that’s what he did.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Do you know a gentleman named Dr. Richard Fuisz?”
O’MEARA: “I have met Dr. Fuisz.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “How did you meet Dr. Fuisz?”
O’MEARA: “Through Paul Hoven.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Would you please explain what happened?”
O’MEARA: “Paul wanted me to meet his good friend, Dr. Fuisz, and we drove out to Dr. Fuisz’s office. I was sick the day that we drove out there, so Paul ended up driving my car. I thought it was in Vienna, Virginia, but I understand now it’s actually in Chantilly. Anyway, we went to his office and kind of just chitchatted for a while. I wasn’t impressed.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Did you later find out whether or not Dr. Fuisz had any relationship to the intelligence community?”
O’MEARA: “I was told by Paul Hoven. And this is what actually got me hooked up with Susan after all these years. I read her Lockerbie deposition.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “What does that mean, Lockerbie deposition?”
O’MEARA: “She wrote a deposition for the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie trial.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “What was the nub of the deposition that caught your attention?”
O’MEARA: “Her deposition was actually almost to the letter what Paul Hoven told me about Lockerbie.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “What was that?”
O’MEARA: “That it wasn’t the Libyans that shot it down. It was the Syrians. And Dr. Fuisz was there. He knew. There was supposed to be some secret meeting that was set up between a member of Congress in Switzerland, but something happened where it didn’t work out. So the Syrians were going to take the – I mean the Libyans were going to take the fall for this.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “All right.”
O’MEARA: “When I saw Susan’s deposition on Google– I didn’t even know she did a deposition until just recently. That’s when I called her. I said, Susan, I had no idea that Paul had told you the same thing that he told me.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “How was Dr. Fuisz related to this?”
O’MEARA: “Paul said that Dr. Fuisz was there. He knew.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “There? Where?”
O’MEARA: “I assumed it was in Syria. He was in Syria.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “He knew what?”
O’MEARA: “That it was the Syrians, and not the Libyans.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “That is essentially what the –”
O’MEARA: “That’s what Susan wrote in her deposition, and I was very, very shocked to see it, because I didn’t know she had wrote a deposition, and I had no idea that anybody had told her the same thing that Paul had told me.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “When did this come in relation to your meeting Dr. Fuisz?”
O’MEARA: “I don’t remember the dates. I have been away from the Hill since ‘97.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Was it after or before your meeting with Dr. Fuisz?”
O’MEARA: “It was after my meeting with Dr. Fuisz.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “And have you met Dr. Fuisz again?”
O’MEARA: “Yes. Paul contacted me, asking me to do an article (when I was a reporter) for Dr. Fuisz, about some contractor trouble he was having with a house he was building. I didn’t do the article, because they never gave me the documentation that I needed.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Getting back to the deposition concerning Lockerbie and Libya, were you present, or did you observe conversations between Hoven and Susan?”
O’MEARA: “All the time.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “All right.”
O’MEARA: “At least every Thursday at Hunan, when I was at Hunan. I mean, sometimes you know, you have hearings or whatever, and you are not able to make it. When Susan was there and Paul was there, they were talking.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Did they talk about Lockerbie with some frequency?”
O’MEARA: “I don’t know. I have no idea. I didn’t go and listen to their conversations. I just know that when they were there together, they were talking to each other. And I heard about Susan all the time from Paul.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “What did you hear?”
O’MEARA: “You name it. I mean, I’m sorry to say I’m embarrassed. I used to get tired of hearing about Susan frankly.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Did he speak well of her?”
O’MEARA: “Yes. Sure. I mean, I think this has already been in the press, but Paul nicknamed Susan “Snowflake,” and he used do say she was dingy.”
THE COURT: “She was what?”
O’MEARA: “Dingy. I never thought much of it, but Paul spoke about Susan a lot to me. I met with Paul I would say three or four times a month, you know, for years, dinners—”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Did he explain sometimes what she was doing, and –”
O’MEARA: “Sometimes.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “And what was that?”
O’MEARA: “I just listened to Paul tell me the stuff.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “All right. Did you talk with Paul Hoven at about the time he was interviewed by the FBI?”
O’MEARA: “I got a call from Paul after the FBI interviewed him. Yes.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Did he talk with you about the substance of the interview?”
O’MEARA: “Yes.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “What was the substance according to Paul?”
O’MEARA: “It was a strange phone call. I hadn’t talked to Paul for awhile. Paul left town – again, I’m guessing – I think it was right after Susan was arrested. It was very quickly. Paul left town and went back to Minnesota.”
“Anyway, so I was angry at Paul for not saying goodbye to me, because I knew him for so long. So then, when I got this call, that he had been interviewed by the FBI, that was kind of interesting that he took the time to call me.”
“Basically he was saying to me in Paul’s fashion—Oh, Susan said I am defense intelligence and she’s f’ing crazy and she doesn’t f’ing know what she’s talking about. I mean, that’s the way Paul talks.”
“I said, Paul, I said, you know, Susan was always kind of ditzy, but I never thought she was crazy. It was just this really intense phone call. I have to say that I had a feeling Paul wanted me to agree with him that she was crazy, and I couldn’t. I said, Paul, I don’t think she’s crazy.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “Well, did Paul say that Susan was incorrect or inaccurate when she described him as being intelligence, or did he say she’s crazy for having said it? What was your impression?”
O’MEARA: “Paul never denied during the telephone call that he was defense intelligence, or whatever she was claiming. But he just kept saying, oh, she’s crazy.”
SHAUGHNESSY: “All right. Had he ever expressed the notion that Susan was crazy before this?”
O’MEA
RA: “No. Not to me.”
On cross examination, O’Callaghan, my prosecutor, sprung a huge surprise on O’Meara.
According to O’Callaghan, Paul Hoven told the FBI he hardly knows O’Meara at all. Hoven claimed that he only met her “a couple of times.”
O’CALLAGHAN: “Thank you. Now, you talked about the meetings that you had at this Hunan restaurant in Washington, D.C., correct?”
O’MEARA: “Right.”
O’CALLAGHAN: “How long did these dinner meetings or dinner get-togethers take place? How many years?”
O’MEARA: “Years. I did it for years. Ten – I won’t say ten. Five. Five years.”
O’CALLAGHAN: “Five to ten years?”
O’MEARA: “I think I did. I mean, it was a long time that we were there. I think I was involved in it maybe five years, and I was like late to the group, I think. All I know is I went to them for a long time.”
O’CALLAGHAN: “Was Paul Hoven at some of these dinner get-togethers that you described?”
O’MEARA: “Yes.”
O’CALLAGHAN: “Do you think you met Mr. Hoven at these dinners quite frequently?”
O’MEARA: “Yes.”
O’CALLAGHAN: “Would it surprise you if Mr. Hoven told the FBI that he only met you once or twice at these dinner get-togethers?”
O’MEARA: “I would be insulted to hear that.”
O’CALLAGHAN: “So it would surprise you?”
O’MEARA: “Very surprising.”
It was a stunning moment, a whopper of a lie that caused O’Meara to shake visibly in front of the Judge.
O’CALLAGHAN: “Now, you testified that you came to know Paul Hoven through these dinner get-togethers and conversations with him fairly well, correct?”
O’MEARA: “I knew Paul before those dinners, years before those dinners.”
O’CALLAGHAN: “So, years before the dinners and then through the dinners, you got to know him through the beginning of the 1990s?”
O’MEARA: “Yes.”
O’CALLAGHAN: “You never came to know what Paul Hoven did for a living, however?”
EXTREME PREJUDICE: The Terrifying Story of the Patriot Act and the Cover Ups of 9/11 and Iraq Page 61
